One use of wireless technologies following the IEEE 802.11 standard that is expected to grow to very large volumes is in so-called “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices that provide machine-to-machine communications. Like all wireless devices, IoT devices must be tested during manufacture to make sure that they are operational and meet standard-prescribed specifications intended to minimize interference with other wireless devices.
Such IoT devices are expected to be low-cost devices that offer few ways of transferring information to them other than via signals sent to them. Nevertheless, in order to operate in an IoT wireless environment, an IoT device must have, for example, a unique media access control (MAC) address assigned to it. That address will be used, for example, in a header field of a standard Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) (TCP/IP) packet. It would identify the sending machine to another machine receiving the sent packet. In addition, other values, such as calibration data could also be transferred and used during manufacturing test.
A challenge is devising a method whereby a unique MAC address and other values could be transferred during a regular, pre-defined test sequence, thereby minimizing test time and cost, and avoiding a separate information-transfer step. (Systems and methods for testing within an existing test environment in accordance with a pre-defined test sequence have been developed, but do not address assignments of MAC or other device address, or transfer of data. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,567,521, 7,689,213, 8,036,617 and 8,085,685, and U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 12/873,399 and 13/437,652, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.) In addition, with a large volume of devices with diversified control and interface features, it would be advantageous to have a method that addresses all such devices rather than having specialized methods for each distinct device type.